


Sleep and Seduction

by amandasarmada



Series: What Else? [16]
Category: The West Wing
Genre: F/M, Post-Series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-19
Updated: 2015-02-19
Packaged: 2018-03-13 18:16:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,124
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3391424
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amandasarmada/pseuds/amandasarmada
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After C.J. returns from a trip to Africa as part of her work with the Franklin Hollis Foundation, she and Danny go on a getaway and grow closer.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sleep and Seduction

**Author's Note:**

> This is technically rated M, but only for the last paragraph or so. It's also really fluffy and kind of drabbly, but wth, idowhatiwant. :) (BTW, sorry for the delay in updates, I've had midterms on top of computer problems.) Enjoy!

**Monday, May 28, 2007**

“Morning, C.J.” She awoke immediately at the familiar voice. Her eyes peeped open, seeing the bright blue eyes gazing lovingly at her.

“You look like a besotted puppy,” she giggled, rolling over to wrap her arms around him.

“Woof.”

“C'mere,” she murmured, pulling him on top of her.

“You're insatiable,” he muttered, his face breaking into a grin.

* * *

**THAT AFTERNOON**

They were in the kitchen, Danny working on dinner, C.J. sitting at the bar counter, light jazz playing in the background over the companionable silence, until C.J.'s tentative voice broke through the air.

“Danny...”

He glanced up quickly at her, his eyes alert. “Yeah,” he said promptly.

She took a breath, plowing forward tentatively. “...I know you're waiting for it, and I'll talk to you about it eventually, but I think for now I just need to push it from my mind. Let the passion and the horror die a little, so I can focus it - channel it to do some good. Otherwise it's going to drive me crazy, and I need a break from crazy for awhile.”

Danny looked up at her, pausing in his act of peeling potatoes to absorb her sudden confession. “I know, C.J. You don't have to explain anything,” he said gently.

“I know it makes me selfish. Trying to forget,” C.J. looked at him from under her long lashes.

“That's the last word I'd use to describe you.” He had trouble keeping the smile from his face.

C.J. smiled at him coyly, standing and taking a step closer. “How _would_ you describe me then?”

He set down the peeler, his arms wrapping around her. “Sensitive.” He kissed her. “Kind.” He brought his lips to hers again quickly. “Compassionate. Brilliant. Driven. Powerful. Sexy as all hell.” He punctuated each statement with a quick kiss. She rubbed her hands down his chest. Danny exhaled, grinning.

“Down girl.” C.J. pouted, and he laughed. “Nooo. None of that right now.” He shook his head, still smiling. “You need feeding, you look like you've lost weight. I've gotta get you back to normal before next month, if the Bartlets see you looking this exhausted I'm gonna be dodging Secret Service men til November.”

“You promise to make it up to me later?” C.J. asked huskily, wrapping her index fingers around the belt loops of Danny's jeans.

“Have I ever let you down?” Danny murmured, grinning widely. C.J. grinned back, kissing him quickly. “You really haven't. You need any help?”

Danny smirked a little, standing on his tiptoes to graze his lips across the top of her head. “C.J., you are a brilliant, beautiful, incredible woman, and you are blessed with many talents. Cooking is not one of them.” She raised her eyebrows. “Aw, I didn't mean it like that-” he laughed, seeing her mildly offended look. “You're not _bad_ at it, you're just not...” He stopped, seeing her smile. “You're messing with me, aren't you?” he laughed. She grinned, and he shook his head, amused. “ Sit down, relax – I've got this.” He kissed her again, a brief peck on the lips, before giving her a pat on the butt as he guided her back to her seat.

“So what exactly did you get up to while I was gone?” She took a sip of white wine before setting the glass back down in front of her. Danny exhaled, shifting his gaze before meeting hers, putting on a smile.

“Lots of phone calls. I'm going to be spending most of my summer assembling lesson plans, making out lecture presentations. It's a little weird to think about, I'm not usually the one addressing the room. This is more your area of expertise than mine.”

“Are you not looking forward to it?” C.J. asked, concerned.

“No, no. It's not that, it's just a big adjustment. I think it's going to be a lot of fun, though.”

“You're going to make a great professor,” C.J. said sincerely. “Those kids will love you. You're brilliant, funny, nice, cute...you'll be a natural.”

Danny beamed at her, leaning over to give her a quick kiss, his hand tracing along the side of her face. “Thank God for TAs, though. I'm going to be up to my ears working on the new book.”

“D'you think you'll be making lots of trips to New Hampshire this summer?”

“Oh, I'm sure. I've got one with Abbey in mid-June, actually.” He smiled at her. “You ever gonna come out with me?”

“I think I'm gonna have to,” C.J. laughed. “Josiah Bartlet's even more persistent than you are, and that's nothing on his wife.” Her laugh faltered, her face becoming serious. “Anyway, I'm going to have more free time.” She paused. “I talked to Franklin Hollis this morning. I'm taking some time off work. I'm not taking a sabbatical or anything, just taking it easy before we get the ball rolling once-and-for-all and get our projects off the ground. I'll be working part-time, mostly from home for the time-being. I need a vacation.” She sighed. “Not just a lying-on-the-beach sort of vacation. You're right. I've worked 18-hour days for the better part of nine years. I need a break. I need to rest. Just for a couple months. I never took a real vacation after leaving the White House, just a few days at a time now and then. I need this.”

Danny stopped what he was doing, caught off guard a little but not wholly surprised. He came over, kissing her forehead gently, meeting her eyes without saying anything. “Thanks,” she said softly.

Danny smiled at her, before directing his attention back to the food preparation. “Speaking of trips,” he said lightly, “How would you feel about going away for a few days? I thought you might like to go relax somewhere before you go back to work.”

“Honestly?” C.J. closed her eyes, leaning back against the back of her bar stool. “I kind of want to just settle back in here. I've been traveling almost non-stop for a month, I'm exhausted. Maybe over the weekend though?”

“You betcha.” He leaned over the counter to kiss her cheek. “Where do you want to go?”

“Nowhere far. Maybe a resort somewhere? That could be nice.”

“Sure! Hey, don't even think about it,” Danny moved to stand behind her, kissing her neck softly, his beard tickling and making her shake with laughter. “I'll do all the planning, you relax,” he smiled. “We'll duck out for a few days, soak up the sun...you can lie on the beach and in a hotel room while I gaze at your gorgeous body...Read some terrible novels, eat chocolate and drink wine...” C.J. shivered at his touch, smiling. “It's gonna be great, just leave it to me.”

* * *

**Friday, June 1, 2007**

**Hotel Del Coronado, San Diego, California**

“Danny, this is amazing,” C.J. said breathlessly as she stepped into the beach cottage. Danny grinned, following her in and setting down their suitcases. “You really like it?”

“Of _course_ I like it,” C.J. said disbelievingly, turning to look at him. “This place is gorgeous.” She took a few more steps into the cottage, her eyes scanning the horizon. “Oh my god,” she breathed, stepping out onto the deck. “Oh my _god_. It's stunning.”

Danny smiled, coming up behind her and wrapping his arms around her waist.

“What do you want to do first?” he asked, his beard tickling her cheek as he spoke into her ear.

“Beach,” C.J. said immediately. She turned to smile at him, wrapping her arms around his neck as he touched his forehead to hers.

* * *

Danny spent his afternoon wading into the ocean, with long gaps lying in the sun, his freckled body slathered in sunscreen as he watched C.J. soak in the sea. Her loud laughter trickled over to his place on the sand, and he found himself rejoining her, laughing at her shrieks when he splashed her, grinning as he lifted her and dunked her into the water.

“I can't remember the last time I did something like this,” she admitted, as he pushed her wet hair out of her face.

“I'm making a suggestion. We should try to take a real vacation at least once a year, no matter how important the work is you're doing.”

She sighed, nodding, smiling sheepishly. He smiled at her sun-kissed face, glistening with water droplets. “That's my girl. And just remember, as amazing as you are, your work suffers when you don't give yourself time to breathe. Breaks are an investment. A week away improves your quality of work for months.”

“I know, you're right,” she murmured, as he kissed her ear.

“I know I am,” he said smiling, pecking her wet cheek.

“I should listen to you more. You're a smart guy,” she said, in that low voice that always made his heart speed up. He smiled, closing his eyes for a second as she ran her hands over his chest.

“Don't let that go to your head though,” she added mischievously, and he opened his eyes a split-second too late. Her hand pushed his head down, and he burst up a second later, laughing and spitting out a stream of water. He wrapped his arms around her waist under the water, pulling her close to him as she wrapped her legs around his waist.

Ten minutes later she dragged him out, and they went back to their cabin to shower and change, him into khakis and a button down, her into a sundress that would make a man of God give up his vows. He brought her to a little cafe on the coast, grinning at her sun-kissed face over dinner, finally heading back to their room as the sun first started to set.

* * *

An hour later C.J. had changed into a pale blue nightgown and was laying on the patio, stretched out on one of the two-seater hammocks under the fading sun. Danny curled up next to her, smelling faintly of salt and sea, with a mixture of soap. She settled into his arms as he kissed her forehead, drowsy from a day of swimming and sunshine and chocolate and champagne.

“We should buy a house,” Danny said absently, drunk on sleep and her scent. C.J. looked up at him sleepily. “I was thinking that too,” she said softly.

Danny looked at her, a little surprised. “Yeah?”

“Yeah,” she murmured. “I used to have a house, before the election. I'd like the space again.” She opened her eyes. “Not that you're crowding me, I just meant-”

“I know what you meant,” Danny smiled, kissing the top of her head. He rubbed her shoulders, and C.J. sighed, content.

“This is good for me,” she said quietly.

“It is,” Danny agreed softly, massaging her gently.

“Sometimes I wonder if I'll ever be able to really relax again,” she mumbled.

Danny nodded, understanding. Her tenure as Chief-of-Staff had changed her, there was no denying it. She was tenser and slower to laugh, more defensive and harsher with her replies. And yet, over the past few months, he'd watched her easing up. The sadness that had been etched into her face was fading, even though her trip had reinforced it again. “Things are getting better though, aren't they?” he suggested quietly.

“Monumentally,” she assured him, sighing as he continued easing the tension in her shoulders and arms. “That's really nice,” she said softly.

“You want me to help you relax?” he whispered, barely audible. She shivered, biting her lip as she smiled.

“Yeah, if you don't mind that I'm tired.”

“Don't worry. This is just for you.” Danny swept one hand down slowly, gently easing under the loose nightgown she'd changed into after dinner. His breath caught as he realized she wasn't wearing panties. He managed to settle his breathing after a moment, wanting to concentrate on making her feel good. He slipped his fingers between her legs, and she sighed, a sleepy smile on her face. He rubbed her gently, his fingers circling her clit as her breathing changed, then deepened the pressure, kissing her neck softly and whispering to her. He felt her stiffen and her breath was quiet but ragged, and she whispered his name as she came. Afterward he brought his arms around her again, squeezing her close to him as her breathing settled and she relaxed against him, a drowsy smile on her face. “I love you,” he murmured, feeling himself drifting to sleep. He heard her repeat the sentiment and felt the brush of her lips on his cheek before his mind faded to darkness.

 


End file.
